The National Assembly has taken another huge leap in changing Venezuela’s present geo-economic, social, and political system for that of a communal state underpinned by a social economy with its fast-track approval, following their first debate, of two bills that allegedly seek to strengthen the communal branch of government, but in fact aim to put in place a system for controlling society.

The bills in question are the Communes Bill and the Bill on the Promotion and Development of the Communal Economic System.

The Communes Bill aims to break with the existing democratic and economic system of institutions in order to create a socialist-style geopolitical space.

The Communes or Communal Towns are a type of local government not provided for in the Constitution where socialism à la Chávez would prevail and would act as an engine of development. These new entities will be a kind of ghetto made up of a group of communities located within a given geographic area that have “a historical memory, the same name, and usage, customs, and cultural features” in common that identify them. The concept of state, municipalities, and parishes will no longer have any value.

Organized in Communal Parliaments, the communes will be the entities in charge of establishing a different way of administering the public policies outline by Castro-communism. The Communal Parliaments will have the power to define what is produced and how much and they will also be empowered to regulate social and community life and maintain public order.

The legal basis of these communes will be the Communal Charters and their Compliance Councils, which, alongside the Constitution and the laws, will be the instruments that will regulate the life of the communes, where the “collective interest” will prevail over private interests. The communes will have their own Communal Bank, where allocated resources and resources generated by the commune will be administered internally. A system of “Communal Justice” will also be set up, which will act as an alternative to the Republic’s existing system of justice.

“Communal property” will be “social property and, according to the bill, ownership of property will only be for the “use and enjoyment” of individuals and families, but they will not be able to freely dispose of said property.

The Bill on the Promotion and Development of the Communal Economic System lays the foundations for the socialist productive model that will prevail in the communes. This model is geared to eliminating the division of work that exists under the capitalist model to replace it with “new forms of generation, appropriation, and social reinvestment of surpluses.”

This bill establishes barter as a form trade and subsistence, and communal currencies will be created to be used exclusively by the commune. This will set trade back to colonial times, when the large landowner subjugated his colonists by controlling a currency with restricted value. The idea behind barter is to control the value of work and the value of trade in goods and services. In short, it seeks to monopolize economic power.

These bills continue to weave the legal network of Castro-communism, using “strengthening of popular power,” “‘protagonistic’ participation,” and alleged citizen access to the means of production as bait.

VenEconomy has been a leading provider of consultancy on financial, political and economic data in Venezuela since 1982.